In recent years, large-scale pig-raising has achieved low-cost production, but such a method of raising pigs involves various problems such as negatively impacting the nearby environment, the degradation of meat quality, and deterioration of the pig-raising conditions. Further, pig farmers must make large investments to process the pig excreta that is produced.
As a substance used for improving the health of animals and decreasing animal odors, an animal feed that contains a powder of far-infrared radiative aerolite is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2975562. That disclosure states that the addition of 5 g-15 g of the powder to 1 kg of animal feed is appropriate. The disclosure further states that the diameter of a particle of the powder should be 40 μm-50 μm, and that 65% of the aerolite should be silicon dioxide, which allows a dog to keep in good health and eliminates the odors from the dog's body and excreta. The disclosure explains that such effects are brought about by the following mechanism: 4 μm-14 μm infrared rays cause water clusters to be smaller, allowing the water to penetrate into cells more easily; this increases the activation of the cells of the animals that eat the aerolite powder and improves the health of those animals. The disclosure also states that the types of far-infrared radiation materials to be used are granite, ceramics, or tourmaline. The disclosure further states that dog food mixed with far-infrared radiation materials can prevent dogs from becoming obese.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-169586 discloses a method for disposing of the pollutants of livestock-production facilities, where footboards (floor covering) are laid on the floor of the facilities in which livestock is raised. The disclosure states that the floor covering is made from fermented compost mixed with chaff, wood waste, or the like, and that an eluate of a filling material is sprinkled over the footboard. The disclosure further states that pumice that contains a water-dissolving silica component is mixed with the floor covering, and that the eluate of the filling material contains a water-dissolving silica component, which assists in activating the water and thereby increases the number of effective microorganisms, and facilitates the composting of the floor covering. In this disclosure, the floor covering is mixed with the livestock excreta, which is then fermented together with the floor covering, with the mixture turning into a compost. Meanwhile, the water-dissolving silica referred to in the disclosure is made by combining silica, extracted from ore, with pumice.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 2975562    Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-169586